Google Official Advocates Early Training To Get Computer Professionals In Nigeria

May 19, 2017

By Ijeoma Ndubisi

Abuja – A Google official, Mr Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, says Nigeria must invest more in early education of skilled computer individuals to create jobs.

Kola-Ogunlade, Communication and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone West Africa, of the organisation, expressed the view in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, training older people on computer knowledge makes it hard for them to understand easily.
“Trying to ensure that people have the right knowledge is one of the challenges of having skilled computer professionals.
“We need to educate our people; it is about getting access to the right training, access to the right tools and being able to use them in the right way.

“We need to start earlier to train people on computer skills from kindergarten, like from the age of 12, helping them to surf the net.

“Over 70 per cent of the Nigerian population is below the age of 30, we need to start a bit earlier so that it is not too late to teach people.
“This is to ensure that we do not begin to teach people about how the web works at old age when it is harder for their brain to assimilate.
“Considering our population, imagine how many people that will be online creating content; we will create jobs from there and digital economies which is where we should be,” he said.
Kola-Ogunlade observed that big technology companies across the world were mostly established by young people.
He said that developing skilled computer professionals was not only the responsibility of tertiary schools.
“At this point developing skilled computer professionals requires all hands to be on the deck.
“It is not just for the tertiary institutions, it should go even beyond primary schools.
“It requires introducing kids to science and technology very early; it is a system thing which involves nursery, primary, secondary, tertiary schools and companies to come together.’’